1. Introduction
a. This morning as we continue our series The Gospel in the Seven Sayings of the Cross we focus on Christ’s fourth statement made from the cross.
b. In the statement we will evaluate today, Christ demonstrates that sin separates us from God, leaving us feeling empty and lonely.
c. That emptiness can only be filled by one person, Jesus Christ. If we don’t accept Him, we will be empty and lonely until we are called home and our soul leaves this earthly body.
d. Illustration:
Loneliness is a growing problem in our society. A study by the American Council of Life Insurance reported that the most lonely group in America is that of college students. That’s surprising! Next on the list are divorced people, welfare recipients, single mothers, rural students, housewives, and the elderly.
To point out how lonely people can be, Charles Swindoll mentioned an ad in a Kansas newspaper. It read, “I will listen to you talk for 30 minutes without comment for $5.”
Swindoll said, “Sounds like a hoax, doesn’t it? But the person was serious. Did anybody call? You bet. It wasn’t long before this individual was receiving 10 to 20 calls a day. The pain of loneliness was so sharp that some were willing to try anything for a half hour of companionship”
e. So today we want to look at what causes that emptiness and loneliness, what are its consequences, and how do we fix it.
2. The prelude.
a. Matthew 27:45 tells us there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour; that is until about 3 P.M.
b. While Christ was hanging from the cross, nature wrapped itself in darkness to mourn this travesty, a darkness that delivered God’s divine judgment on sin, poured out on our Savior bearing the burden and curse of a multitude of sins that were not His.
c. And yet as He does so, He reveals to us something of the mystery of spiritual suffering.
d. For in the climax of His suffering, he speaks words of utter and complete loneliness.
e. Then, at the pinnacle of these dark hours, an awful cry escapes His lips.
3. Savior by choice, not by chance.
a. If anything should impress on you the significance of what Christ did on our behalf, as if that was not enough, is that He did it willingly.
b. John 10:14 – 18 records these words of Jesus regarding His willingness to die on our behalf, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
c. The key statement in that passage is this, “…I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”
d. He was pure, without sin; and yet He willingly died for sins He did not commit.
e. Read Matthew 27:46—And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
f. Christ has just shown those present at His crucifixion, and now us, that God cannot tolerate and cannot be in the presence of sin, not even when it is borne by His own son.
g. So if Christ has been separated from God because of bearing sins He did not commit, how can we be any less separated for bearing sins we have committed?
h. At this moment in the crucifixion, the sins of the world were placed upon him.
(1) Read 2 Corinthians 5:21—For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2) This verse is one of the most important in all of Scripture for understanding the meaning of the atonement and justification.
(3) But, we should not ever misinterpret Paul’s statement here. Christ didn’t become sinful at this point.
(4) God the Father made Christ to be regarded and treated as “sin” even though Christ himself never sinned.
(5) Our sins were placed on Him, but they were not in Him—God made Him to be a sin-offering on our behalf.
i. Just as God imputed (credited) our sin and guilt to Christ (“he made him to be sin”), He also imputes (credits) Christ’s righteousness—a righteousness that is not our own—to all who believe in Christ.
4. Christ proves his humanity, yet retains his deity.
a. While it might appear so, based on Matthew’s comments, Jesus was never forsaken by His Father. He couldn’t be, because He and His father were one.
b. While on the cross, Jesus never lost His consciousness of His deity.
(1) Though God in human form, Jesus presents the perfect example of humility.
(2) The God who created the universe, who created all that exists, could easily have come down from the cross and exacted a wrath never before seen by man. Ye He didn’t.
(3) Philippians 2:6 says, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,”
(4) This wonderful passage begins by proclaiming that Jesus, who existed in the form, or true and exact nature, of God and shared his glory, did not regard His equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.
(5) Christ did not imagine that having “equality with God” (which He already possessed) should lead him to hold onto His privileges at all costs. These privileges were not something to be kept and exploited for His own benefit or advantage.
(6) He had no need, for He has always been God.
(7) Instead, he had a mind-set of service. In humility, he counted the interests of others as more significant than his own.
(8) John 1:1 speaks of Jesus this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
c. So, as a man, as the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
d. God didn’t really forsake Him, because this was His son. But, God cannot be in the presence of sin and since Jesus was bearing all past, present, and future sins of the world, God temporarily withdrew His presence until the sin price was paid.
e. He was forsaken because of our sins so that we might not be.
5. The ultimate message.
a. The words were uttered at the close of the three hours that Jesus had been on the cross (Matt. 27:46).
b. He did not whisper these words at the end of His crucifixion ordeal, but He cried them out in a loud voice of anxious.
c. He summoned strength from within a weak and abused body and roared. He made a voice that thundered and could be heard by everybody around.
d. It was one last message, one last sermon, one last teaching opportunity—as long as we are covered in our sins we cannot have communion with God, we cannot come into His presence.
e. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(1) Paul presents three vivid contrasts in this passage that all condense down to which of two choices we will make.
(a) There are two potential masters—sin and God.
(b) There are two potential methods of receiving our final reward—wages, which are something we earn; or are a free gift.
(c) There are two potential end results—a spiritual death, that is an eternal life without God in it; or an eternal life in the presence of God.
(2) It all comes down to this:
(a) The wages paid by sin are death, but the gift God gives is eternal life.
(b) Not only is the contrast between death and life but also between earning and giving. As sinners we earn what we receive.
(c) By giving in to the impulses of sin, we store up the reward for sinning. Left unchecked and unresolved, our severance check will be death—eternal separation from God.
(d) On the other hand, if we take the more difficult road and yield to righteousness, we do not earn anything. We do, however, receive a gift—the gift of eternal life, which comes by faith through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6. Closing and Invitation
a. If we fail to accept the gift Christ offers us that was purchased with His death and suffering, then His death was in vain.
b. Conversely, if only one person accepts Jesus’ free gift, then His death and suffering was worth it all.
c. If we fail to accept the gift Jesus offers us, then not only do we face a lifetime of separation from God and His blessings in this life, but we also face an eternity of separation from God and His blessings.
d. On the other hand, if we accept the gift Jesus freely offers us we get to experience the presence of God and His blessings both in this lifetime and for eternity.
e. John records in Revelation 3:20 these words of Jesus, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
f. It’s that simple. It’s as simple as inviting Jesus into your heart.
g. Do you hear Him knocking this morning? Will you answer? Will you invite Him into your heart?
